Superstar casual staff – how to find and keep them

Accounting for just over one fifth of our Australian workforce, casual workers can make the difference when it comes to your business success.

If you’re in the hospitality industry in our home city on the Gold Coast, chances are your are seeing this right now.

You often hear once you find a super star casual team member you hold on to them like never before. It makes sense as we know the time to continually re-train can be a frustrating, time consuming and expensive.

Step up your game in 2020 with a motivated and inspired casual workforce to propel you forward.

4 tips to find your casual superstars

Read on for the 4 tips to keep your current casual staff engaged.

Precisely define who you are looking for

Consider the day to day tasks, issues management skills needed, and the manner in which you’d like these jobs completed. Include this within your position description and be sure to correctly title the role with your ideal candidate in mind, while ensuring consistency within your wider team structure. Need help with this – we have your back with our recruitment star Marija!

2. Consider the lead time to market

What type of person do you have in mind? If you’re considering students, ensure you’re posting your job within their break times, when they have the time to seek the best opportunities suited to them. This may mean posting your opening more in advance than usual, however this can also provide a longer window to ensure you’re covering all your options and aren’t forced to make a rush decision.

3. Favor personality and cultural fit over experience

When it comes to hospitality it’s all about the experiences you
provide and how you make people feel – consider this when recruiting.

Investigate applicants passions and their in person interactivity.
Often their ability to communicate and assist customers trumps their knowledge
on the tasks that can be more easily taught overtime.

4. Advertise on the right platforms for your ideal team member

On top of your regular, wide reaching channels, consider posting within targeted audiences that attract your ideal team member. For example at your local sports clubs if you’re a Sports Bar looking for someone who shares the same passion as yourself and customers.

NEXT STEPS – So you’ve found your team member – now how do you ensure buy-in to your business?

4 tips to keep your casual team members engaged

We know casual work within the hospitality industry can be draining, with irregular hours and weekend work. Fostering a strong team environment where staff feel valued, secure and a part of something bigger goes a long way in holding onto your stars. You’ve put so much time in hiring and training, so don’t let them go now!

a) Create a family

What do
your team members enjoy, what are they motivated by?

Consider this when focusing on building a greater sense of community and family within your team. Whether this includes social outings after work, family and team photos displayed in back of house, or discounts for loved ones – when it comes to creating a community often it is the small things that nourish team growth.

b) Goal setting

Providing
the tools and opportunities for your team members to focus on their own development
goals shows support and respect to your team and can lead to a greater sense of
wanting to give back to assist you. It’s a cycle and a positive one for all!

c) Incentives

Getting this right really involves understanding your team and what motivates them, but when you get it right it’s shown to really drive performance within a team. It can be a fine balance while ensuring it doesn’t foster negative competitiveness, however when carefully implemented and monitored with lots of team input and involvement in the build – and you can find yourself with a tool that drive results.

d) Show your team they are valued

Being casually employed is often accompanied with a sense of insecurity that the job may change at any time. This doesn’t have to be the case. To ensure this does not negatively impact your team members motivation to engage, be sure to communicate how important the role is to you and provide praise how your team members prefers. Some will crave congratulations in front of an audience while others will appreciate more of a low key person to person thank you or card.

Know your ideal team member to succeed

You may have spotted a common theme. The tips for finding and maintaining an engaged casual workforce that will help your business succeed are underpinned by a need to understand your ideal team member – focus on this and you’re on the track to create a team that will back you all the way.

Sounds good but have no idea where to start?

Reach out to discuss your needs. We provide flexible hours to suit your business to get your new and existing team members engaged.

You can reach us on sally@purpleplayground.com.au or
marija@purpleplayground.com.au.